Matter of Distance / Cuestión de distancia

The Ant Project is thrilled to announce the first exhibition produced by The Ant Project in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Institute at the Mexican Consulate in Miami. The focus has been placed on the artists from both countries who are producing on the opposite side of their places of origin, Mexicans in the United States and Americans in Mexico. The meeting of seven amazing artists who are blurring the line between the two countries by their artistic expression is a way to talk about a border that is also permeable and fluid.

Matter of Distance / Cuestión de Distancia

What is the dividing line between Mexico and the United States? Is it the physical border north of one and south of the other? It is the line that connects us and, at the same time, separates us, like the glass border of Carlos Fuentes where we can see but cannot be the other. In this sight, the other side becomes fascinating. It complements us and takes us to reinvent ourselves in an attempt to understand it. It makes us fluid, like the water that flows through the rivers of both countries into the Rio Grande and keeps flowing uninterruptedly regardless of where that water originates.

“Cuestión de Distancia” brings together seven artists producing on opposite sides of their place of origin; Mexicans in the United States and Americans in Mexico. Throughout their diverse practices, which speak of the notion of distance and proximity among interpersonal relationships, of losses and ruins in a history that has focused on narrating destruction, and of the historical-cultural narratives that have identified us as heirs of a cosmic race, we find a fluid and permeable border that transpires in both directions.

We find in their work that the tension generated by the disappearance of known references opens the space for re-creation, perhaps in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by ancestral deities, who manifest themselves in familiar characters fighting for a space of equity and justice.

Omar Barquet, Marcos Castro, Virginia Colwell, Melanie McLain, Pablo Rasgado, Carla Rippey and Kara Rooney in collaboration with Nestor Quiñones and Fausto Palma.

Curator: Guadalupe García, founder of The Ant Project.

Watch the Opening Replay